Rapid Z 600

Just picked up a used 3-9 Conquest with the Rapid Z 600 reticle. Got it mounted up and took it out to give it a try. Zeiss website said with a 155gr Scenar at 2865fps, I should be on 8x. Rough zeroed it 1.5" high at 100 and moved back to 600. Shot one round, lowered two clicks and proceeded to pound steel from 300 to 600. Wind was blowing from about 4:30 from 10 to 13 mph. I used the 5 mph wind dot and never missed a shot. the 300, 400 and 500 yard plates were 8" and the 600 was 12". It was just too dang easy. Not as precise as dialing to be sure, but definitely minute of vitals all the way to 600 and way quicker than dialing. I think it's a keeper…

I'm sure the Rapid Zs are old news, but I was so impressed with how quick it was compared to dialing yet still offered plenty enough precision for shooting medium game and up, so feel compelled to expand on it a little bit.

If the user expects the retcle to match their load on max magnification, they would likely be disappointed. However, the process for using the reticle combined with the proper magnification is simple.

I went to the Zeiss website (Zeiss Ballistic Calculator) and entered 155gr Scenar. I had to change BC in advanced settings. Zeiss was using the G7 as a G1 BC for the Scenar, but other bullets I looked at seemed to be correct. I entered velocity, altitude, temp, height above bore. It gave me the magnification to set the scope on to have the yardages match up. As it was, at 2100 feet, 90 degrees, with my load it suggested 8x. I was surprised by how close the marks matched up at the recommended magnification. The 300 yard mark was actually 300, the 400 was 397, the 500 was 502 and the 600 was 605. It worked out that way on steel too. Easily hit well within the center of my plates, 8" plates out to 500 yards and 12" at 600, which is likely as far as I'll be shooting a .308 at critters.

I had some concerns about the windage marks being usable, but they worked quite well. Had a 10 - 13 mph wind from 4:30 to 5:00. Looked at my little chart which gave approximately between a 5 and 8 mph value. I held between the 5 and 10 marks and hit every time. I could see a potential problem with values > 10mph. The windage references max out at 10 mph…

All in all, seems to be a very effective system for hunting. Much quicker than referencing dope and dialing, yet precise enough to hit vitals as far as I need to shoot.